Health News Results - 23

MONDAY, May 6, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- As if using cocaine or methamphetamines isn't risky enough, new research shows a sharp spike in urine drug tests that are positive for those drugs and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The findings could provide insight into steeply rising rates of cocaine- and methamphetamine-related overdoses in the United States.

TUESDAY, March 12, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Though they know that nearly all heroin is laced with the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl, many Baltimore users aren't prepared to prevent or treat fentanyl-related overdoses, a new study finds.

Baltimore has a thriving heroin trade and 1,000 opioid overdose deaths a year.

TUESDAY, March 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide in the United States hit an all-time high in 2017 -- more than 150,000 in all.

That number was more than double 1999 levels, according to a chilling new analysis of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by the Trust for America's Health and Well Being Trust, two health policy organizations...

TUESDAY, Feb. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Drug makers and federal regulators dropped the ball in tracking the use of a potentially deadly fast-acting form of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, putting thousands of patients at risk of a fatal overdose, a new study claims.

Transmucosal Immediate-Release Fentanyl (TIRF) drugs are approved for use in cancer patients who've developed toleranc...

THURSDAY, Jan. 10, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- The rate at which middle-aged American women die from overdoses involving opioids and other drugs nearly quadrupled between 1999 and 2017, new government data shows.

In 1999, about seven out of every 100,000 deaths among U.S. women aged 30 to 64 was caused by a drug overdose, but by 2017 that rate had risen to about 24 women per 100,000 -- a...

THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The opioid epidemic has been front-page news for a few years now, with rising overdose deaths driving an overall decrease in Americans' average life expectancy.

But a new study suggests that the opioid epidemic is, in fact, nothing new.

Death rates from drug overdoses in the United States have been on an exponential growth curve t...

MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- As deadly fentanyl is increasingly mixed into heroin and other street drugs, some drug abusers are getting smart, a new study finds.

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, has triggered a sharp increase in overdose deaths over the past few years. The drug is to blame for 44 percent of overdose deaths in New York City alone, according to New Y...

MONDAY, Aug. 27, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- More Americans are now dying from suicide and drug overdoses combined than from diabetes, a new report reveals.

In 2016, there were 29 deaths from suicide or drug overdose per 100,000 Americans, compared to just under 25 deaths per 100,000 from diabetes. That was up from just two years before, when death rates from the two causes were comparab...

FRIDAY, June 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Illegal opioid sales on the internet have surged in the wake of U.S. government crackdowns on prescriptions for the highly addictive painkillers, a new study shows.

In 2014, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reclassified the opioid hydrocodone (Vicodin). The change made the drug harder to prescribe and banned automatic refills.

THURSDAY, March 29, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Drug overdose deaths continue to pile up in the United States, driven largely by the opioid epidemic and the emergence of dangerously potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl, a new government report shows.

Overdose deaths increased by 21.5 percent in 2016, a much sharper spike than the 11.4 percent increase seen the previous year, researcher...

Opioid prescriptions by the VHA have declined since peaking in 2012, a new study finds. Key to the drop is decreases in long-term prescriptions, which carry greater risk for overdose and addiction, said the s...

Over a dozen cases have emerged in which drug abusers have developed severe short-term memory loss, possibly after experiencing an overdose, said Marc Haut. He's chair of West Virginia University's depart...

FRIDAY, Dec. 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A once-monthly injection of the opioid addiction drug buprenorphine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Millions of Americans are suffering from addiction to opioid drugs, and millions more are worried that the overdose epidemic could claim the lives of a friend or loved one," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Th...

FRIDAY, Oct. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Extremely powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl or carfentanil, were directly responsible for more than half of thousands of opioid overdose deaths across many states in 2016, a new report finds.

Most often, fentanyl and even more potent "fentanyl analog" drugs -- such as carfentanil -- were mixed into the heroin that addicts were using...

FRIDAY, June 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that more than half of all drug overdose deaths may be caused by the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

But most opioid addicts are not actively seeking out the potentially lethal painkiller. Instead, they're terrified by the increasing contamination of the illicit drug supply by fentanyl, investigators said.